Gender Fusing: Van Noten's Triumph

PARIS — Dries Van Noten electrified the first full day of the Paris fashion season with a show that was delicate, a touch frivolous — yet profound.

Crystals exploding over the surface of a camel hair coat, feathers sprouting from a sober skirt, the light-handed frivolity of a silk fringe, all counterbalanced by sober, mannish brogues — the Belgian designer had a familiar story in that tired man/woman subject at his show on Wednesday. But the result was so inventive and refreshing that he received roars of applause.

“It’s an evolution — a lot of men’s wear touched by female embellishment, mohair English wool with diamonds — and Fred and Ginger, that kind of lightness,” the designer said backstage at his autumn 2013 collection.

The soundtrack dutifully played “Cheek to Cheek” sung by Fred Astaire as he danced with Ginger Rogers in “Top Hat.” And that sweet calm of the 1930s couple extended to the clothes. There were no battles of the sexes in the mix of dry, masculine cloth and sweet female flower embroideries.

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Dries Van Noten, autumn/winter 2013, in Paris.Credit
Catwalking

Yet this powerful collection was revolutionary in its way, for after all the battling years — from the androgynous 1980s through the girly 2000s — Mr. Van Noten took fashion to a crucial point beyond the angry feminist gender bending to what he called “fused genders.”

So instead of a sense of a cocky rebellion of women wearing the pants or a rage to stand shoulder to padded shoulder with the male wardrobe, here were elegant clothes that brought together the genders. The most unlikely were the feathers pushing up like early shoots through sober gray suiting; or a similar idea in which golden flowers were embroidered on camel hair or alpaca tailoring.

Held in the gilded grandeur of City Hall, what the designer called “a lot of bling” seemed to melt into the clothes, even if just a small golden bow embroidered on a fluffy sweater. But to get the balance right, there were also anti-bling pieces: a man’s striped scarf worn casually at the neck or a hospital-white cotton shirt with just a small dose of embroidery.

Mr. Van Noten pushes his vision forward without ever contradicting his own aesthetic: that clothes should be comfortable, wearable and decent. He can get serenity out of austerity in the gentle cut of a coat and make vivid colors fade away to shades of pink and dove gray.

The designer has an absolute grasp of how modern women want to dress, and his respectful and imaginative show sets the bar high at the beginning of the Paris ready-to-wear season.

Yet at Rochas, it was the same male-female story, also beautifully executed with a gentility that may turn out to be the leitmotif of fashion now.

The creative director, Marco Zanini, told his story with some exaggerated shapes, including huge egg-shaped coats or ultra-full skirts. The clothes had a faint echo of the 1950s, but not in a retro way. Other looks were long and slim — and might be just a sweater and skirt, using a couple of the sweet but strong colors.

Backstage, the designer explained what he called a “nonchalant” attitude.

“At Rochas, we are not cultivating extravagance,” he said. “It’s the idea of being grown-up, a woman who is waiting to get her own confidence.”

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The current ideas about women’s fashion are more forthright than revolutionary. The show constantly offered choices: flat, plain shoes or heels; the exaggeratedly big or a small silhouette. This already seemed respectful, compared to how women were once treated entirely as objects to be dressed.

Color was a messenger, along with texture. Mr. Zanini used a lamé, couture style, made at the silk mills in Lyon, while softer, silken fabrics made up pajamas for casual evenings. He found the words for all the elements in a show that was womanly without ever being girly: “A dignified feminine persona.”